In recent years, safety improving arrangements and systems have been developed in the automotive industry. Such safety improving arrangements and systems are for example airbags, seat belt tensioners, traction control systems, stability control systems, collision warning systems or collision mitigation systems. Some of such systems are capable of improving the safety of driving and some of such systems are capable of improving occupant safety during a vehicle collision. Systems capable of improving the safety of driving are also referred to as active safety systems, and systems capable of improving occupant safety during a collision are also referred to as passive safety systems. Both passive and active safety systems would benefit if they were provided with information about an intention of the host vehicle driver. For example, in a situation where a hosting vehicle is approaching a preceding vehicle with high relative velocity between the hosting vehicle and the preceding vehicle and where it appears only to be a matter of seconds before an impending collision between the two, it would be beneficial if information were available about whether the host vehicle driver intends to initiate an overtaking of the preceding vehicle or not. That is, if it could be determined whether the host vehicle driver intends to initiate an overtaking or not, the safety improving potential of passive and active safety systems would be improved. For example, in case it is determined that the host vehicle driver does not intend to overtake a preceding vehicle, and it is detected that the host vehicle is approaching a preceding vehicle with high relative velocity between the hosting vehicle and the preceding vehicle, and where it appears to be a matter of seconds before an impending collision between the two, a seat belt tensioner could be designed such that it tensions a seat belt before the impending collision, an air bag could be designed such that it is prepared for deployment before the impending collision, a collision warning system could be designed such that it warns the host vehicle driver about the impending collision, a collision mitigation system could be designed such that it mitigates the collision for example by a braking of the host vehicle before the impending collision. Accordingly, as reasoned above, it would be beneficial for many arrangements and systems in modern vehicles, if one could determine if the host vehicle driver intends to overtake a preceding vehicle or not.
Attempts have been made to provide methods for determining a level of overtaking intention of a host vehicle driver. For example, the document U.S. Pat. No. 8,543,310 B2 relates to a method for operating an automatic speed control system of an automotive vehicle. In the document, it is described that the driver's intention to overtake can be determined based upon some parameters, such as the activation of a vehicle turn signal, and a steering angle. However, such method fails to estimate the driver's intention to overtake in a satisfactorily manner.
Therefore, in view of the above, there is a need for methods and arrangements providing an improved estimation of a level of overtaking intention of a vehicle driver.